The campaign to recall State Sen. Josh Newman turns in over 35K signatures

Campaign to Stop the Car & Gas Tax Hikes Submits First Batch of Signatures in Recall of Sen. Josh Newman

To trigger a recall election, California state initiative rules require the collection of over 63,500 signatures over six months. In a stunning show of grassroots support, the campaign to recall State Senator Josh Newman over his decisive vote to raise car and gas taxes is pleased to announce it has collected over half of what they need after only three weeks!

Over 35,000 signatures have been submitted to the Registrar of Voters’ offices of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties – which cover Newman’s district. The campaign has actually collected far more signatures than submitted in the first three weeks, but the campaign takes the extra step of internally validating 100% of all signatures and has a significant backlog still awaiting review. State law encourages initiative campaigns to submit signatures in batches to expedite the state’s official review.

“The voters’ response to this recall initiative has been absolutely overwhelming!” notes Carl DeMaio, Chairman of Reform California. “Voters from across the political spectrum are outraged over the car and gas tax hikes and intend to send a strong message to Sacramento politicians by removing Senator Josh Newman, who cast the deciding vote on the tax hikes, from office in record time,” noted DeMaio.

The statewide campaign to overturn the car and tax hikes is being pursued on two parallel tracks: target and remove from office state legislators like Newman from office until the tax hikes are rescinded while simultaneously crafting a statewide initiative for the 2018 election to fix transportation funding, lockbox gas tax revenues exclusively for roads and require any increases in gas taxes be voted on by the public, not the politicians.

The campaign’s success comes despite Senator Newman’s shameful decision to pay out-of-state operatives to target signature gatherers with aggressive bullying and harassment. “Newman’s bullying and harassment has backfired and only emboldened voters of every political party to sign the petition,” notes DeMaio. “Newman will face the voters and will be held accountable for his misguided decision to raise their car and gas taxes and his disgraceful behavior ,” DeMaio concludes.